The Old Wives' Tale | Arnold Bennett | Francine Prose | Literature | Classics | eBooks


The Old Wives' Tale

By: Arnold Bennett ~ Introduction by: Francine Prose


Old Wives' Tale - Adobe eBook

The Old Wives' Tale ~~ Adobe eBook

Adobe eBook

Platforms
Windows Vista / XP / 2000, Mac OS X Tiger

Features
Advanced navigation, search, bookmarks, and multiple viewing options.

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Price: $4.95


Old Wives' Tale - Microsoft Reader eBook

The Old Wives' Tale ~~ Microsoft Reader eBook

Microsoft Reader eBook

Platforms
Windows 98+, Tablet PC, Pocket PC 2003

Features
ClearType, advanced navigation, search, personal library, bookmarks, notes, and drawing.

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Price: $4.95


Old Wives' Tale - Palm eBook

The Old Wives' Tale ~~ Palm eBook

Palm eBook

Platforms
All Palm & Pocket PC handheld devices plus all Windows and Macintosh computers.

Features
Advanced navigation, search, bookmarks, and powerful viewing features.

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Price: $4.95


The Old Wives' Tale Summary:

First published in 1908, The Old Wives' Tale affirms the integrity of ordinary lives as it tells the story of the Baines sisters -- shy, retiring Constance and defiant, romantic Sophia -- over the course of nearly half a century.

Bennett traces the sisters' lives from childhood in their father's drapery shop in provincial Bursley, England, during the mid-Victorian era, through their married lives, to the modern industrial age, when they are reunited as old women. The setting moves from the Five Towns of Staffordshire to exotic and cosmopolitan Paris, while the action moves from the subdued domestic routine of the Baines household to the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.

With a New Introduction by Francine Prose, the author of thirteen books of fiction. Francine is a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities and the New York Public Library's Center for Scholars and Writers.

Commentary by Rebecca West, W. Somerset Maugham, Virginia Woolf, H. G. Wells, Henry James, and J. B. Priestley.


"[Arnold Bennett's] superb Old Wives' Tale, wandering from person to person and from scene to scene, is by far the finest 'long novel' that has been written in English and in the English fashion, in this generation."
   H. G. WELLS

"Like Wordsworth, [Arnold Bennett] has triumphed over the habitual; he has not let it disguise the particle of beauty from him."
   REBECCA WEST